GUYS! That race was intense! But fun, I promise you, by the end I was smiling and having a great time. I went down with 3 other guys, we rented a van without the back seat and threw our bikes in the back. One guy I swam with on the team, the other 2 were his friends from a running group he's in. I'll explain it all from when we woke up...at 4:30 am because we had to drive for a while to get there. I made coffee and oatmeal for energy and mixed a banana in with the oatmeal and ate half an apple on the way. It was a smaller race, first wave started swimming at 6:55, we got there just after 6 and had plenty of time.
We parked and walked our stuff to the entrance where there was a table with ladies who looked me up and gave me a bag with a bunch of stuff: a large sticker number to put on the main bar of my bike, a green swim cap (people over 35 had orange) a Tek race Tshirt (no one wore these for the race), an electronic ankle strap to wear through all transitions, another number to pin on and wear while running and some advertising pamphlets too.
At the same area there was a lady doing body marking, she wrote my race age on my calf (30 because thats how old I'll be at the end of the year) and my race number on both arms. When I arrived I was wearing my tri shorts under a pair of pants and a long-sleeved shirt because it was cold, you don't have to be in full gear for the body marking, I just rolled up my pant leg and took off my shirt.
Then I walked my bike to the transition area where there were long poles to hang your bike on, numbers 1-50 on one pole, etc, I was 138 so I was on the pole 100-150, it was kind of crowded so its best to get your spot quick. You lift up your back wheel and hang your bike seat on the pole, I found this pic online that shows it:
Transition SetupThen you set up for your transitions, basically I made sure my running shoes were untied and ready to put on and put them directly under my bike with one sock in each, put on my helmet to make sure it fit right and set that under my bike too, put a water bottle in my shoe to drink when I got out (I recommend 2 and one on your bike, I only had one in my shoe with like 2 sips left it sucked). Then I took off my pants and shirt and put on my tri top, (I bought one that went with my shorts but a lot of people seem to have ones for the teams they train with, my friends had ones from their running team). I wasn't sure how this was going to work, my friend said to pin my number to my tri top and wear it under my wetsuit but this seemed weird to me. I pinned it on but at the last minute decided I felt too awkward and I took off my tri top and decided not to wear it under my wetsuit but put it on in the first transition after the swim. I put it neatly over one bag of my extra stuff and my dry towel over my other bag of stuff. Bring slippers to wear while you're waiting around for the race to start. Luckily I happened to bring mine. Then while the announcer dude was talking about things not to do and explaining details of the race (I was so nervous I didnt hear ANY of it) I was putting on my wetsuit which I had borrowed and never worn before. It was a little big, it was a Medium Tall but the sleeves were a little too long, guess I'm not tall. I put on my ankle strap, swim cap and goggles (goggles UNDER the swim cap so they dont get knocked off in the water), took off my slippers, met my friends and walked down to the start. Oh yeah, and they played the national anthem and we all faced the flag. They did that at the 10K too.
At this point I was REALLY fucking nervous. But a lot of people were. A lot of first-timers do a Sprint race. More experienced athletes were really cool, one guy showed my friend and I how to seal the top of the wetsuit with the long zipper cord so you can easily pull the cord up to unfasten the Velcro and then pull down to unzip. I started actually listening to the announcer who was explaining the swim course, ours was an in-water start but the water was shallow, about 4 or 5 feet the whole way. There were people out swimming a bit to warm up and I decided I should also so I could feel what it was like in the wetsuit. IT WAS WEIRD. I was so buoyant! Its like you're on top of the water, I wasn't used to that, it felt constricting but not, hard to explain, I was going fast but didn't feel like myself, I was super confident about the swim before, and now all of that went out the window. Soon we were lining up, I had what I thought was a good spot, but whatever, at this point I didn't really know what to think.
Then they counted down. Then the horn blew and I dove, and swam and swam, and was kicked, and kicked other people, and people hit me, and I hit other dudes, and at first it was annoying, we had practiced this in the pool and I easily climbed over everyone and found room out front, but this was waaaay harder. I kept having to look for room, then I'd get there, then someone would kick me or hit me, then I remembered what my coach said, we're all gonna kick each other, there are a lot of people trying to do the same thing with little space and really its not mean-spirited and no one is mad, its just what happens. And none of it really hurt, but it was disorienting and made it hard to swim when you cant get a stroke in. Then I remembered my coach also said some people just stand at the start and let everyone go, they give themselves room then dive in, so I kind of slowed down a bit and let the people I was hitting go ahead (obviously the only reason we kept hitting each other is because we were going the exact same speed) suddenly I had room to swim which was nice, but it wasn't like swimming in the pool, you can't see anything in the water, there are no lines at the bottom to follow and the water was not calm, it was like swimming in a toilet being flushed while trying to go toward a buoy. The trouble then was going straight, there were orange cone buoys you would pass (they were on my left) and one yellow one at the end, I kept having to look out of the water to see where all of them were, and I wonder what kind of a line I was going in, not straight thats for sure, (insert "not straight" joke here) but I finally got to the yellow buoy, turned well and just kept going back, at this point I was not in a zone...more of a daze, I think I was so far out of my element, with the open water and the wetsuit and not being able to see, I was just thinking "Josh has to do this, so I have to do this, I can do this, I'm a great swimmer." and before I knew it I was at the other yellow buoy where we started, I turned and headed toward the finish. People were standing and walking I tried that, then tried swimming, then did what I did ALL THE TIME in Hawaii which was launch of the bottom and dive/swim, over and over til my hands dragged the bottom (coach says thats when you should stand up, when your stroke strokes the bottom) and walked (couldn't really run so well in the wetsuit after that swim, but no one really could so I felt ok).
Then jogged into the transition area with a HUGE headache, I don't know why, maybe the hitting, maybe the adrenaline, maybe a supplement I took before the race, I don't know but my heart was racing, my head was pounding, it SUCKED. Tried to rip off my wetsuit while running but I was in too much of a daze and didn't want to fall. Found my bike easily, saw that my friend who parked by me wasn't there yet so I felt good. Ripped off my goggles and swim cap, tried again with the wetsuit and the helpful zipper trick wasn't too helpful, it was a pain in the ass getting that thing off, I just pulled as hard as I could, got grass all over it, eventually it was off, but I lost a lot of time with that (my friend caught up). I was in my tri shorts. I grabbed my tri shirt with the number on it, IT WAS SO HARD TO PUT ON! Its all spandex or whatever and which arm went in what hole I wasnt sure, my number ripped off of their pins almost immediately, I slowed down, straightened it out, got it on and repinned my number and put on my helmet. I grabbed my towel and sat down, toweled off my feet quickly, put on my socks and shoes as quick as I could, took down my bike and ran.
I remembered, there is a certain point where you're allowed to mount, its outside of the transition area so I just kept running with everyone, saw a different friend and we left the transition area at the exact same time. We got to where you could mount and I was on quick. Then I started to feel better. I mount and dismount my bike all the time, I bike around slower people in the city all the time and I felt good, I was still in a daze for the first hundred meters or so but I was so glad to not be swimming. Then my friend who left the transition area at the same time as me passed me. Then a lot of people passed me. It kind of sucked, but I just thought "if you're passing me now, that means I beat you swimming." And they all had fancy bikes and I knew that going into the race, I thought I wouldn't care because I didn't care about time...but I do care about beating people. In the pool, I go so much harder when I'm trying to pass someone, I love that, but that was just impossible on my bike. Still, one friend was ahead of me, two were behind me, I felt good. I went as hard as I could, we were on the road we drove to get to the race, soon though we were overlooking some beautiful wetlands, and old homes on the water, a boating community, it was actually very beautiful. That's one thing I look forward to with future races, some are in some very beautiful places. I was sooooooooo thirsty. I had a swig of my water in the transition area but I was breathing hard, rhythmically, trying to keep my cadence up on my spin and my throat was dry. If you don't have a water bottle holder on your bike, put one on now. So I'm riding and eventually I saw bikers coming back toward me, these were the winning dudes so I was glad I wasn't too far behind them. They all did a double take when they saw me pumping on my shitty single- speed bike, whatever. Eventually I saw the turnaround area (there are cops stopping cars and volunteers waving flags to tell you when to turn and volunteers cheering you on) and I was on my way back and I had this STUPID song stuck in my head! I can't think of what it was but it was playing in the transition area, it was about some guy who was sad about his girlfriend, it wasn't helping...I tried soooo hard to get "He's going the Distance!" by Cake stuck in my head but it didn't work, I settled for "Surf City here I come!" by the Beach Boys and just pedaled back as fast as I could. People still passed me, but I crossed paths with my two friends who were behind me and I stayed way ahead of them. As I got closer to the transition area I saw a table set up with cups of water (I was thirsty!) and some guys running, these were the winners but they hadn't won yet which felt good. We pulled back into the transition area and people cheered us on, even commenting on how great it was that I was racing on a single speed!
I ran with the bike to my spot again, hung it up, ditched the helmet and ran. I immediately felt good to be running and not biking, and the view was over this bay in a state park, and I thought of Dad and all the races he's done and I was glad to be running. And my legs didn't hurt, and even if they did I wouldn't have cared because I knew I was on the last leg of the race. But it really didn't hurt...I was surprised, I was so worried about the run, but yesterday's 10K felt good too so I was getting confident, and passing people! All the people with the fancy triathlon bikes weren't so fast without them. I passed a lot of people, and it was easy, I would just make a goal of passing a guy 3 people ahead and I would just go for it, and it wasn't hard because my ultimate goal at that point was to get to that table covered in cups of water! And I did, and I was so shaky at this point I could barely drink while running, but I learned a tip on the way back when I passed the table again, bend the cup so it folds into a sharp angle and its easier to drink. Like taking a shot, I've been practicing that for years! So I ran and I ran, and people took pictures and I was in a great mood, and I crossed paths with people I met at the start and we cheered each other on, and I high-fived my friends as I crossed them and I felt like a million bucks, but I wasn't done yet. I pulled into the finish area and soooo many people are cheering you on, volunteers, kids, people in wheelchairs, I felt like I won already, then I got to the real finish line and over the loudspeaker I hear "Andrew Geske from New York City!" and my one friend who beat me took a picture as I finished and a little girl handed me a medal, it was awesome. I forgot I had the electronic ankle strap on so the computer told the announcer who I was as I approached. It was a good finish.
We watched our other 2 friends finish and then I went to my bike and streeeeeetched, my legs were tight but I wasn't injured, I was glad. I could've passed out, and the loudspeaker was blasting that JayZ song "You're in New Yoork! These streets will make you feel brand new, these lights will inspire you!" I took a moment. Then I ate about 6 Oatmeal Raisin cookies, drank 2 bottles of water, a protein shake, had half a bagel, a banana and a tangerine. Then we went to the Jersey Shore and laid in the sun and drank beers on the boardwalk.
And this was just the Sprint. Not even an Olympic. Good thing Dad told us to start small. I'm also glad I'm doing some open water swims before Lake Geneva to get used to that aspect and I may try to do another Sprint before too. It was hard, but it just makes me want to get better at it. Here are some things I wish I had done differently:
That's all I can think of, the swim was way harder than I expected, the run was way easier than I expected, and the bike was just annoying to not be able to pass anyone. All in all I think it was a great first race.
I'm tired.
swim .3 miles, bike 10 miles, run 3.1 miles
swim 8:13.1 bike 36:42.1 run 24:09.1
